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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
This book is more 2 1/2 stars for me. This book is a good lesson for people. If you see someone being a bully, don't just stand there, do something. It was a decent book overall.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love a good creepy story, particularly when it comes with a supernatural element. This one was satisfying.
Kind of an interesting story, mixing childhood memories with present day happenings...but got a little bizzaro towards the end--with a visit from the grave. Read it if you have nothing else on your shelf.
Jennifer McMahon, Promise Not to Tell (Harper, 2007)
We are often told not to judge books by their covers, but it's well-nigh impossible to think about Jennifer McMahon's debut novel, Promise Not to Tell, without taking into account the utterly arresting Jock Sturges photograph that graces it. (Which, by the by, made me think it was a young adult novel. Not so; McMahon would publish her first YA tome the following year.) The girl in the photograph is certainly pre-teen, with short, scruffy pigtails to emphasize her youth, as Sturges was so wont to do. The look on her face is an endlessly intriguing combination of innocence, frustration, and aggression. I have no idea whether the picture was taken specifically for the book, but that it is a depiction of Del, the girl around whom the book revolves, is unquestionable.
Del, however, is not our main character. That would be Kate Cypher, a forty-one-year-old nurse from Seattle who comes back to the commune where she grew up in order to decide whether her mother, who is succumbing to dementia, needs to go to a nursing home. On the day she arrives, a girl, a close friend of the only teenager left in the commune, is murdered. The killing is eerily similar to one thirty years before—that of Kate's only childhood friend, Del, who was called “the potato girl” when she was alive. As time went on, the potato girl became synonymous with the local boogeyman. Now the superstitious half of the town, including Del's older brother, a roustabout and Kate's first childhood crush, believes Del was responsible for the new murder, while the more practical half of the town believes Kate may have been responsible for both murders. But Kate believes her mother, whose behavior has become increasingly strange and who she found wandering outside the house with a knife the morning after the murder, may have committed murder without knowing it.
I can't tell you what the turning point was where I went from “I'm willing to go wherever McMahon takes me” to “I'm not sure if she's going to pull this off”, because that turning point is one of the book's major spoilers, and I think too many reviews, including the “official” ones, have come way too close to that line already. You'll know it when you see it, though, and what you think of this book is in large part likely to hinge on whether you think she pulls off the biggest of what I'll call the non-mystery angles. (There are a few here; you know there's going to be a romantic subplot when a childhood crush shows up in a divorced woman's life, for example.) I'm still not 100% sure she did pull it off, but I think I may be comparing her to another author who does it on a regular basis (telling you who would be giving the game away), and anyone would come away with a bit of the blush off after a comparison like that. I do recommend reading this one way or the other, as there's a solid mystery sitting at the heart of this book, and we get closer to the story of Del's death in parallel with getting closer to solving the contemporary murder, which always feels artificial, but I never seem to care. It's a good book, but be prepared—you may have a worse reaction to the Big Turning Point(TM) than I did. *** ½
We are often told not to judge books by their covers, but it's well-nigh impossible to think about Jennifer McMahon's debut novel, Promise Not to Tell, without taking into account the utterly arresting Jock Sturges photograph that graces it. (Which, by the by, made me think it was a young adult novel. Not so; McMahon would publish her first YA tome the following year.) The girl in the photograph is certainly pre-teen, with short, scruffy pigtails to emphasize her youth, as Sturges was so wont to do. The look on her face is an endlessly intriguing combination of innocence, frustration, and aggression. I have no idea whether the picture was taken specifically for the book, but that it is a depiction of Del, the girl around whom the book revolves, is unquestionable.
Del, however, is not our main character. That would be Kate Cypher, a forty-one-year-old nurse from Seattle who comes back to the commune where she grew up in order to decide whether her mother, who is succumbing to dementia, needs to go to a nursing home. On the day she arrives, a girl, a close friend of the only teenager left in the commune, is murdered. The killing is eerily similar to one thirty years before—that of Kate's only childhood friend, Del, who was called “the potato girl” when she was alive. As time went on, the potato girl became synonymous with the local boogeyman. Now the superstitious half of the town, including Del's older brother, a roustabout and Kate's first childhood crush, believes Del was responsible for the new murder, while the more practical half of the town believes Kate may have been responsible for both murders. But Kate believes her mother, whose behavior has become increasingly strange and who she found wandering outside the house with a knife the morning after the murder, may have committed murder without knowing it.
I can't tell you what the turning point was where I went from “I'm willing to go wherever McMahon takes me” to “I'm not sure if she's going to pull this off”, because that turning point is one of the book's major spoilers, and I think too many reviews, including the “official” ones, have come way too close to that line already. You'll know it when you see it, though, and what you think of this book is in large part likely to hinge on whether you think she pulls off the biggest of what I'll call the non-mystery angles. (There are a few here; you know there's going to be a romantic subplot when a childhood crush shows up in a divorced woman's life, for example.) I'm still not 100% sure she did pull it off, but I think I may be comparing her to another author who does it on a regular basis (telling you who would be giving the game away), and anyone would come away with a bit of the blush off after a comparison like that. I do recommend reading this one way or the other, as there's a solid mystery sitting at the heart of this book, and we get closer to the story of Del's death in parallel with getting closer to solving the contemporary murder, which always feels artificial, but I never seem to care. It's a good book, but be prepared—you may have a worse reaction to the Big Turning Point(TM) than I did. *** ½
“I killed someone tonight…”
So says forty-one-year-old Kate Cypher who has just returned home to rural Vermont to care for her mother who is fast descending into Alzheimer’s. Her first night back, a grisly murder takes place in the woods behind her mother’s cabin – a crime identical to one that happened thirty years before, when Kate’s best friend, 12 year-old Del Griswald, was strangled and left naked, a square of skin neatly removed from her chest – the killer never found. Del, in her death, has achieved more power than she ever had in life as the pervasive village legend of the Potato Girl. Children sing nursery rhymes about her and teenagers tell Potato Girl ghost stories around campfires. But in her life, Del was a social outcast and horribly bullied by her classmates who thought she was poor, dirty, and smelled of rotten potatoes.
Ten year old Kate was the new girl in school and Del’s neighbor. She found a best friend in Del – a fact that she wanted no one at school to know about and went to great lengths to keep their friendship hidden. Kate’s need to impress the popular girls led to her ultimate betrayal of Del on the day she was murdered which haunts Kate from then on. When the second murder takes place, she’s plunged back into her childhood guilt and she knows the only way to forgive herself for the betrayal is to find the killer.
I can’t say enough about the wonderful character newcomer Jennifer McMahon has created in Del. She cusses, she smokes, she wears her brother’s hand me downs, she knows how to shoot a BB gun. She’s a wild thing that her classmates just don’t understand and the reader is lucky enough to get to know. But there is a darker side to her life – her mother died when she was little and there are allusions to the fact that her father sexually abuses her. She is a character of many layers and although she is a pariah, you can’t help but love her and hope that she finds peace in her afterlife.
PROMISE NOT TO TELL is more than just a murder mystery. It’s also a story of friendship and family that I believe will attract an audience similar to that of THE LOVELY BONES. In addition to exploring how childhood traumas effect your whole life, McMahon also examines the scary prospect of coping with a parent who is succumbing to Alzheimer’s. Through this devastating disease, she moves the plot forward in a unique way that works as both ghost story and family drama.
PROMISE NOT TO TELL is scary, dark, thrilling, and ultimately uplifting and I know you will love Del and her story as much as I have.
So says forty-one-year-old Kate Cypher who has just returned home to rural Vermont to care for her mother who is fast descending into Alzheimer’s. Her first night back, a grisly murder takes place in the woods behind her mother’s cabin – a crime identical to one that happened thirty years before, when Kate’s best friend, 12 year-old Del Griswald, was strangled and left naked, a square of skin neatly removed from her chest – the killer never found. Del, in her death, has achieved more power than she ever had in life as the pervasive village legend of the Potato Girl. Children sing nursery rhymes about her and teenagers tell Potato Girl ghost stories around campfires. But in her life, Del was a social outcast and horribly bullied by her classmates who thought she was poor, dirty, and smelled of rotten potatoes.
Ten year old Kate was the new girl in school and Del’s neighbor. She found a best friend in Del – a fact that she wanted no one at school to know about and went to great lengths to keep their friendship hidden. Kate’s need to impress the popular girls led to her ultimate betrayal of Del on the day she was murdered which haunts Kate from then on. When the second murder takes place, she’s plunged back into her childhood guilt and she knows the only way to forgive herself for the betrayal is to find the killer.
I can’t say enough about the wonderful character newcomer Jennifer McMahon has created in Del. She cusses, she smokes, she wears her brother’s hand me downs, she knows how to shoot a BB gun. She’s a wild thing that her classmates just don’t understand and the reader is lucky enough to get to know. But there is a darker side to her life – her mother died when she was little and there are allusions to the fact that her father sexually abuses her. She is a character of many layers and although she is a pariah, you can’t help but love her and hope that she finds peace in her afterlife.
PROMISE NOT TO TELL is more than just a murder mystery. It’s also a story of friendship and family that I believe will attract an audience similar to that of THE LOVELY BONES. In addition to exploring how childhood traumas effect your whole life, McMahon also examines the scary prospect of coping with a parent who is succumbing to Alzheimer’s. Through this devastating disease, she moves the plot forward in a unique way that works as both ghost story and family drama.
PROMISE NOT TO TELL is scary, dark, thrilling, and ultimately uplifting and I know you will love Del and her story as much as I have.
Really great quick creepy read. It’s got just a dash of supernatural in it but it’s the believable kind. My dogs really liked my copy I borrowed from the library... so much so that I had to buy a new copy for the library, and finish reading the copy that was destroyed lol. But we made it happen! Shout out to one of my favorite people on bookstagram... @luna13darke for this recommendation! You always seem to know what I need in my life! This is a solid thriller 4/5 check it out especially if you were a fan of The Winter People this book is on par with that.
Okay, I think it's time that Jennifer McMahon and I break up. My first introduction to her writing was with [b:The Winter People|18007535|The Winter People|Jennifer McMahon|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1377582922s/18007535.jpg|25273993]. Perhaps I'm just a sucker for creepy stories that take place in wintry, New England towns, but I really enjoyed the book. This of course led me on to reading several more of McMahon's novels - [b:The One I Left Behind|15818278|The One I Left Behind|Jennifer McMahon|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348689472s/15818278.jpg|21545889] (not as good as The Winter People, but an enjoyable read), and then [b:Dismantled|5981445|Dismantled|Jennifer McMahon|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442329809s/5981445.jpg|6154796] which just did not do it for me. As always, I tend to give authors plenty more chances when I loved at least one of their books so I didn't hesitate to pick up a copy of Promise Not to Tell when it caught my eye at the store.
This one held promise - a small, Vermont town, potential murderer on the run, and possible ghosts in the woods. It was the hope for these details to span out into something worthwhile that kept me reading for much longer than I probably should have. While clearly there was potential here for a creepy thriller, what I ended up with was a cast of unlikeable characters, lots of unanswered questions (I STILL would like to know who murdered that poor cat) and a somewhat laughable ghost by the nickname of Potato Girl. I happen to like potatoes and alas, they do not make for a good murder mystery.
I guess it's time for me to make a clean cut and start seeing some other authors!
This one held promise - a small, Vermont town, potential murderer on the run, and possible ghosts in the woods. It was the hope for these details to span out into something worthwhile that kept me reading for much longer than I probably should have. While clearly there was potential here for a creepy thriller, what I ended up with was a cast of unlikeable characters, lots of unanswered questions (I STILL would like to know who murdered that poor cat) and a somewhat laughable ghost by the nickname of Potato Girl. I happen to like potatoes and alas, they do not make for a good murder mystery.
I guess it's time for me to make a clean cut and start seeing some other authors!